Excellent, Without a doubt!!

As Good As It Gets

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Fury (1936) A film that is about exceptions and is not quite exceptional by itself, though it's really good, and really interesting at every turn. And if you find the DVD that has the Bogdanovich commentary, that's actually eye opening just for all the Fritz Lang portions where he comments on it (from interviews in 1965). It should be noted that a lynching is any killing by a mob outside the law. The burning here seems to qualify (though there is no hanging). The culpability of everyone in the mob makes the courtroom case a large affair, the central event. Lang is an "important" director, a great director for sure even if for just a handful of actually great films (more than most directors). Like "Metropolis" and "M" in Germany, and "Scarlet Street" and "The Big Heat" in the U.S. This is his first Hollywood film, and an oddity for MGM (it was more suited to Warner Bros.). It stars Spencer Tracy, which is probably a slight mistake because he can play the nice guy (for the first part of the movie) but not as well the truly angry man (for most of the movie). The theme here is important in a lot of ways. It is about the mob killings of anyone, including Blacks, though that isn't at all introduced here (and that's to Hollywood's predictable shame, I think). But it's also about the growing "lynching" mobs of Jews and others in Germany, which Lang had to flee (his mother was Jewish, though was converted to Catholicism). And to how ordinary people can become complicit in revenge and unjust violence. I watched this not only for Lang, whom I admire, but also the reknowned cinematographer Joe Ruttenberg, who has such a tightly packed sense of framing, every scene has no waste. There is no fancy moving camera and little truly expressionist tilting or Germanic excess, though it's continually dramatic with layers of space and objects as it procedes. There are some special effects toward the end when Tracy is hallucinating (this gives nothing away) and the psychological impact here is compelling...and makes you wish there was more of it. Bogdanovich, for some reason, makes no mention of him at all. I said the movie is not exceptional and this is in the more normal sense of story, development, acting. It is certainly a really good film. It has courtroom scenes that are solid, it has behind the scenes interactions that bolster the individual drama of Tracy and his fiancé, Katherine, played by Sylvia Sydney, who is wonderfully sympathetic. It's important, in a way, for being an early example (possibly the earliest?) of using on-the-scene footage revealing the facts of a crime. (A news photographer happened to be filming the riot, and his footage acted the same way movies and videos have more recently in evidence for crimes.) The thing that Lang adds here really nicely is the underlying romantic drama. Here it twists around the misuse of the word, memento (and momentum)...for which you'll have to see the movie to find out. And it ends with a predictable personal and narrative twist. With the new museum devoted to lynchings in the South, this movie has a new, subtle significance. Tolerate the courtroom stuff and get into the really dramatic parts, which are great filming.

Fritz Lang's first Hollywood movie is an indictment of mob justice and vengeance that might've seemed out of place at MGM, known for their polished melodramas and musicals. This was the type of movie one might expect from Warner Bros, known for their movies about crime and social issues. The film stars Spencer Tracy as a man wrongly accused of kidnapping while passing through a small town. Soon a lynch mob is formed and they attempt to kill Tracy by burning down the jail with him inside. Unknown to them, he manages to escape and plot his revenge.It's a powerful film, particularly for the era, with excellent direction from Fritz Lang and dynamite performances from Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sidney. This was Sidney's only film for MGM. The supporting cast includes solid players like Bruce Cabot, Walter Abel, Edward Ellis, Frank Albertson, and Walter Brennan. Oh and Tracy's dog in this is played by the same dog that played Toto in the Wizard of Oz, which is a bit of cuteness in an otherwise somber film. The ending isn't perfect but it's not the studio-imposed cop-out some reviewers make it out to be. This is a real classic and one of Lang's best American films.

Eighty years after its first release, this story of mob violence in USA is a savage indictment of the American system of mob "justice" from the 1880s to the 1960s. The fictional events of this movie, based upon a true incident, took place in the 1930s. Produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, directed by Fritz Lang, it stars Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sidney in the key roles; with an excellent supporting cast, this is a story that stands the test of time.I won't comment much on the plot and the story, both of which have been adequately addressed by the storyline on the main IMDb page, and a ton of detailed reviews here.However, without Lang and Mankiewicz on this production, the dramatic irony would not, I think, have been as effectively portrayed - for two reasons. First, Lang coming from a Germany where Nazism was ascendant, knew all too well what injustice was all about and how people can prostitute their principles for what is perceived as justifiable retribution. Second, Mankiewicz was a highly experienced actor/producer/director who has shown, throughout his career, that injustice in all its forms must be shown for the evil it is. With such a combination at the reel wheel, this movie was guaranteed to be hard-hitting.Lang's direction is very much on form, using lighting and shadow for full effect; using close up, quick editing in mob scenes; using the camera in extreme close up to ensure viewers note a particular item; and cross-cutting and inter-cutting scenes to heighten suspense. Not the first director to use those techniques, but Lang was a master at it. For the most part, the script and dialog are excellent. My only critique centers upon the courtroom scenes and dialog which, by today's standards, are somewhat stagy; the repartee, between the prosecution and defense counsels, is particularly so, too often for this viewer. And the very last scene, seemingly preachy and even corny, which involves a long verbal exchange between the judge (Burton) and one of the main characters, can only be fully appreciated in the context of the times: a long history of lynching across the USA, an economy in the midst of a Great Depression and a nation on the cusp of another world war.For Lang enthusiasts, Fury is a must see movie, despite the presence of a couple of handy coincidences, an improbable result with the use of dynamite and a glaring loose end - at the very end. Still, this is a movie that should be seen by all, and one I heartily recommend. Eight out of ten.April 24, 2015

There is no other actor who can portray Joe Wilson like Spencer Tracy. This film is so powerful, so intriguing, and so wonderful, I've never seen any movie like it.Spencer Tracy stars as Joseph Wilson, an innocent man who was supposedly killed by a group of blood-thirsty vigilantes. Now, the tables have been turned because 22 members of the vigilantes are standing trial for Joseph Wilson's "death" and Joe is itching to get even with the same people who not only did him wrong, but also killed his beloved dog, Rainbow. Will Joe's conscious make him reveal to the members of the trial and the 22 defendants that he is alive or will he let his 22 "murderers" die? There is no other film that can depict a story about vigilantism gone wrong like Fury. Spencer Tracy and everyone else in the movie has put effort into their acting and the story is phenomenal. Also starring Sylvia Sidney as Katherine Grant, Walter Abel as the district attorney, Bruce Cabot as Kirby Dawson, Edward Ellis as the Sheriff, Walter Brennan as "Bugs" Meyers, Leila Bennett as Edna Hooper, Frank Albertson as Charlie, Helen Flint as Franchette, George Walcott as Tom, and Terry(the dog who played Toto in The Wizard of Oz) as Rainbow.